January 31, 2005

Google Video Search

Like all things google and cool, Google Video Search is in beta testing. Google Video Search is a search engine indexing closed-caption data along with the occasional screen-capture. Please note the contrast with Yahoo Video Search, which attempts to index video in the same way that google indexes images. Confused yet? If not, i could tell you that in the future, Google Video Search may link to the actual video media too.

Currently, it is only indexing a handful of stations. The most interesting seem to be PBS, Fox News, and C-Span uno y dos.

Searching for profanity may lead to the amusing transcripts of our elected representatives.

And A query for Global Warming definitely amused me by providing the silly words of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee). In almost the same breath he discredits scientists as fear-mongering hoaxsters and applauds the scientific merits of Michael Crichton.

And the Fox News angle: "Next on Special Report --- What do the South asian tsunami and heavy Rain, snow and mudslides on the West coast have to do with global warming?" Here is a guy that will let you rest assured that we have nothing to worry about.

Google Video Search opens up the ridiculousness that is pulp news and politics to a much wider audience. Whoopeee!

Be sure to check back in a few months where there is more than a couple weeks of indexed content.

January 30, 2005

Holy Crap!

September 26, 2004

"Skillz" Declared Passe

Detroit, Michigan -- Today, in the metro Detroit area, The Under Reprezented G-Man Funkalicious has declared the reign of "skillz" to have finally concluded.

"The ability is still, mos def, here," he was heard to say. "But the label has just gotta go."

Ever since Charles L Isbell brought the term to light with his fatefull alt.rap post of September '92, the word's Internet use has exploded.

Just two weeks later, Brian "D'Selecta" Millspaw proclaimed "Step cuz if you think it doesn't take as mad skillz to manipulate a rekkerd on a pair of 1200's as it does to play a damn electric guitar you're trippin"

The man was indeed tripping. And thusly, a new dialect, ebono-geek, was born.

Today, the Under Reprezented G-Man Funkalicious calls for us all "to just use some damn synonyms."

"Ability. Ingenuity. Technique. Adroitness. Proficiency. There are dozens of other words to choose from! By falling back on the same word again and again and repetitively, we dull creative expression."

"Phat", "snap", and "bomb" are also reportedly nearing retirement, though their use is nowhere near that of the geek-world adopted "skillz".

"Phat" never truly made it, probably due to its homonymic transgression.

"Snap" is onomatopoetic. One might just as well use "bang", "boom", or "crack".[homonym again -Ed.]

And the only place it is still hip to say "bomb" is at a major entertainment venue or an airport terminal. Bonus points are awarded for slipping "president" or "forgive me" in the same breath. [Hello Secret Service, NSA, and DHL.Oct. 21 is near.]

By the way, 'off the hook' seems to have made a comeback from the '70s, but others might argue that it never left. (linklinkity link

Invitation to the Game

While sifting through old belongings, I opened an old book with a stamp reminding me of its purchase at the Morehead Middle School book-fair. Yes. Morehead is a really amusing school-name to sixth-graders throughout the city.

Now I've just finished re-reading Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes. Ten years ago, it was just technical enough to pique my young geeky interest. It was also my first significant read in a first-person narrative style, which i later declared suprubly desirable during my Heinlein years.

Invitation to the Game is still enjoyable the second time around. It is also a nice Wellsian trainer book.

The paperback cover presents a pretty young-woman wearing what seems to be VR goggles that outwardly depict a desert landscape. Because, let us face it: inward depictions of desert landscapes just don't do you or me any good.

By the way, it doesn't have much to do with this book, but I think it would be nice to have a ranch-style residence atop a desert mesa. We could climb down off the mesa, camp aneath open sky and stargaze. Point out the satellites passing overhead. Look over to our desert plateau and know its welcoming design, and that we will return next morning

The year is 2154.

Lisse has just graduate from a government school. Human job-opportunities are in short supply, with so many robots and all.

Lisse and seven of her high-school friends are sent along with other unemployeds to their own Designated Area whence they are given meager food stipends and must scrounge material home-goods.

Life is bleak until they are invited to The Game. The Game is mysterious. THe Game is desirable. The Game presents challenges which require the group ready themselves in a latter-day Robinson Crusoe style.

September 04, 2004

Week-Long Celebrain hurts

A picture from my recent weekend in Sarasota.
We stayed at the dot. No more pictures for the Gallery, though.

Soon after my arrival in Sarasota, I received a phone call offering me a job. I thought it over for a few minutes and decided it would be nice to walk back into the kitchen, pour myself another glass and announce my finding of gainful employment. Thus began the week-long job-finding celebration-spectacular through Sarasota, West Bloomfield, East Lansing, Mount Pleasant, and Royal Oak. (Why do all my Michigan destinations have two word names?)

Drinks at the Ritz. Champagne breakfast the next morning at the Hyatt. Out to Siesta Key Oyster Bar (SKOB) with my cousin and another friend for the night. The drink of choice was a large plastic pail filled with various rums and juices; it is affectionately referred to as the Village Idiot. Three digit bar tab.

My sister has a nice old house in East Lansing. It is next to the Marathon station on Michigan Ave.

Mt. Pleasant Meijer doesn't seem to carry the game Monopoly... for PS2

First day on the job was spectacular and party like. I guess the work hard comes after the play hard in this situation.

Looks like I might be bedding down with Ben B. in Royal Oak. Village Park is the current leading contender. It is within stumbling distance of various reputable establishments.

August 28, 2004

About Gsource

Gsource
Gsource is an archive of noteworthy ideas. I hope to intrigue the reader with ideas of my own as well as with the ideas of others. Since I mostly keep to myself, my web-presence might also link you to some aspects of my personal life without the need to pick up the phone and call me.

Linksource
You may have been told that The Internet is 90% Crud. I hope to point out some of the remaining 10% with the LinkSource, courtesy of del.icio.us

ReviewSource
I enjoy film. I hope to better your film appreciation by briefly critiquing films i see. Newspapers review new releases. I'll review a Lifetime movie if I happen to catch all of it.

Gsource is an exercise in web standards. All pages should be XHTML 1.0 compliant. I will also strive to make information easily accessible with the assistance of open standards.